


Courage and Class

by TheGoliathBeetle



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Fluff, Family, Gen, Historical, Hurt/Comfort, Some of them are funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:51:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7114264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGoliathBeetle/pseuds/TheGoliathBeetle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Gilbert's one step was Ludwig's three, so Gilbert had to slow his pace and hold his younger brother's hand." A 50-sentence challenge for the German Brothers. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Courage and Class

**Walking**

Gilbert's one step was Ludwig's three, so Gilbert had to slow his pace and hold his younger brother's hand.

**Waltz**

"I don't care if you don't want to learn, Ludwig, dancing is as important as war," as Gilbert signalled for the music, he added, "in war we show courage, in dance we show class."

**Wishes**

"I want to be great like you!" Ludwig told him, and Gilbert didn't have the heart to correct that he had never been quite as strong as he should be.

**Wonder**

As Ludwig looked on with wide, wondrous eyes, Gilbert grinned and said, "this is your empire, your German Empire; I'll control it until you're old enough to do it yourself, but hey – do you like it?" **(1)**

**Worry**

Ludwig closed his eyes and bit his tongue while Gilbert screamed his name beside him; he was fine, though, it was only a flesh would, and war was war.

**Whimsy**

"Dance with me, _bruder_!" Gilbert yelled, drunk, as he tried to waltz around the kitchen floor, "dance, Lud, dance, don't let Versailles get you down!" **(2)**

**Waste**

Ludwig shut his eyes as they destroyed his air force.

**Whiskey and Rum**

Their men found them on the floor, covered in a week's worth of open wounds and drunk out of their senses.

**War**

"Ludwig," Gilbert called for the third time, leafing through the strange, sick book, " _Ludwig_! Why do you have a copy of the _Mein Kampf_?"

**Weddings**

March 30th 1867, Elizabeta walked down the aisle towards Roderich, and somehow, with his little brother holding his hand, Gilbert managed not to cry. **(3)**

**Birthday**

"Happy birt—" Ludwig is about to say as he enters his brother's room with cake, but Gilbert is curled up and asleep with a rolled up old map of Prussia by his pillow.

**Blessing**

The wall comes down, down, down.

**Bias**

"That is an awful lot of people to hate," Gilbert muttered, and from across the room, Ludwig lowered his copy of Hitler's book and gave his brother a warning glare.

**Burning**

"I'll fucking kill those Commies," Gilbert snarled as the Reichstag building burned and burned away. **(4)**

**Breathing**

Until yesterday, Germany had captured Stalin's son alive, and now, Gilbert pressed his foot against the man's lifeless face. **(11)**

**Breaking**

The brick sailed through the air and tore into a window of a synagogue; Ludwig's aim was perfect.

**Belief**

The birth of a nation was the epitome of idealism, but Ludwig no longer believed in himself.

**Balloon**

"My lungs are failing," Ludwig huffed as he blew another balloon for France's surprise party; beside him, Gilbert laughed tauntingly.

**Balcony – (Part I)**

Ludwig didn't know what came over him when he walked into their driveway and saw his brother at the balcony, but he shouted, "O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art  
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head  
As is a winged messenger of heaven  
Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes—" **(5)**

**Bane – (Part II)**

"ROMEO, OH ROMEO," Gilbert shouted back, "SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I WILL JUMP, I SWEAR."

**Quiet**

_Tough guy,_ Gilbert thought with more fondness than usual as he draped a blanket above his idiot brother who'd fallen asleep reading on the couch again.

**Quirks – (Part I)**

"Is that a castle of empty beer bottles?" Germany asked when he saw the four-foot high structure in his living room.

**Question – (Part II)**

"Yeah, I call it _Brandenbeerug_ ," **(4)** Gilbert replied, standing back with crossed arms, admiring his day's work, "why do you ask?"

**Quarrel – (Part I)**

"I get it, I'm an embarrassment who should have died ages ago – but guess what, asshole, I'm the embarrassment that made you Germany!"

**Quitting – (Part II)**

Ludwig had given up trying to reason with his dunce of a brother, fuck him.

**Jump**

His magnificent older brother jumped off his horse, the war medals on his coat glinting in the sun, and little Ludwig was enraptured by just how brilliant Gilbert was.

**Jester**

The only time Ludwig tried making a knock-knock joke was when his brother forgot his house keys and had to wait outside in the snow for three hours; turned out, Gilbert didn't have a very good sense of humour.

**Jousting**

"The last beer is mine!" Gilbert declared, jumping at Ludwig before he could reach the fridge and dropping them both to the floor.

**Jewel**

"They're a bit plain," Gilbert admitted to Ludwig softly as he stared at the Prussian crown jewels, "I mean, compared to England's or Spain's."

**Just**

Ludwig seldom visited Sanssouci **(7)** (unlike Gilbert); Old Fritz's legacy ran circles in his mind, from just king to Nazi hero to enlightened monarch again…honestly, Ludwig would rather not remember.

**Smirk**

1937, Spain **(8)** : Ivan punched Ludwig in the teeth, but Gilbert's brother just stood up, offered a bloody smirk, and pulled out a knife.

**Sorrow**

When Gilbert gets quiet, Ludwig knows it's his cue to take him out for a walk and bring him back to reality.

**Stupidity**

_Gilbert,_ Ludwig thought, wishing his brother wasn't behind that terrible wall, _John F. Kennedy just called himself a jelly donut!_ **(9)**

**Serenade**

"Lud, you work too much! Here, let me sing you to sleep," Gilbert said, smiling wickedly before breaking out into some sort of horrible screeching.

**Sarcasm**

Gilbert once boasted that sarcasm was his second language, until Ludwig agreed, and added that stupidity was his first.

**Sordid**

Never before had snow looked as red as it did in those months in Stalingrad.

**Soliloquy**

"…what can I even say?" _Gilbert,_ Ludwig repeated in his head as he held onto his cold, silently crying because his brother was no longer _Prussia._

**Sojourn – (Part I)**

_hey lud check your phone lololol ok me n the bitches (ie france and spain) are attacking england with paint tonight so dont miss me 2 much i'll probs be sleeping over in madrid or something idek_

**Share – (Part II)**

_Gilbert, I can't seem to get through to your phone, but Feliciano said he would share his Venice home with me for tonight (you're always telling me to relax), so please BE HOME, Merkel said she was going to call about the Greece situation._

**Solitary**

Ludwig nearly fell out of his chair when Gilbert burst into the room at 3.30 am, yelling, "You've been sitting in here working since 9 am, _go the fuck to sleep_!" in his deepest and most frightening soldier voice.

**Nowhere**

"Ludwig…Lud…fuck, I got on a train and I don't know where I am," but Gilbert does, of course; he's in Dresden, curled up at the side of the road at midnight, having an anxiety attack into his mobile phone. **(12)**

**Neutral**

Gilbert can't stand that neutral expression his brother has when America mentions World War II, because Gilbert knows Ludwig is breaking inside and just too proud to show it.

**Nuance**

"Impressive," Gilbert says as he looks at the plans for Ludwig's weekend project to build his own robot, "but then, you learnt from the best."

**Near**

Little Ludwig wakes up shrieking, and Gilbert bursts into the room and hugs the nightmare out of him.

**Natural**

It's one of his lesser-known skills, but Ludwig is a naturally-gifted baker and Gilbert looks forward to any occasion where he can eat homemade cake.

**Horizon**

Gilbert wipes the sweat from his brow and stares into the distance where, beyond the horizon, lies Africa.

**Valiant**

Ludwig's favourite childhood memories were always of Gilbert telling him war stories, tales of valiant knights and just kings; Ludwig would listen, and try and count his brother's battle scars.

**Virtuous**

The only time Ludwig personally visited a concentration camp, he spent the whole night throwing up; what was that feeling in his heart? Remorse?

**Victory**

When Germany won FIFA, Gilbert and Ludwig were celebrating for a week.

**Defeat**

Bloody and shattered, they stayed close as the Allies ripped Berlin apart.

**Author's Note:**

> Historical Notes:
> 
> 1\. Under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, it was Prussia that united the German states and created the German Empire.
> 
> 2\. The Treaty of Versailles, war reparation treaty, was severe and vengeful and had particularly harsh terms for Germany. It also forbade use of Germany's air force, which was subsequently destroyed.
> 
> 3\. This date was the official union of Austria and Hungary to form the Austro-Hungarian empire.
> 
> 4\. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin was burnt down, with Hitler using this to further his anti-Communist propaganda.
> 
> 5\. Lines from Romeo and Juliet.
> 
> 6\. A pun on Brandenburg, a state, an attraction (the Brandenburg Gate) and an integral part of Prussian history.
> 
> 7\. Frederick the Great's favourite residence, and where he was finally laid to rest.
> 
> 8\. In the Spanish Civil War, the Left was supported by USSR and the Right aided by Germany and Italy.
> 
> 9\. When JFK spoke at Berlin, he used the line, "Ich bin ein Berliner," (I am a citizen of Berlin), the problem is that a "Berliner" is also one of the words for "Jelly Donut", so another translation of the sentence could be, "I am a jelly donut."
> 
> 10\. German empire participated in the scramble for Africa.
> 
> 11\. Stalin's son Yakov was captured by the Germans, and Stalin didn't bother saving him. It is believed he died in a concentration camp.
> 
> 12\. The city of Dresden was brutally bombed in WWII.


End file.
